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Providence and the scandal of evil 309-314
309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and
good world, cares
for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as
pressing as it is
unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer
will suffice. Only
Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this
question: the goodness of
creation, the drama of sin and the patient love of God who comes
to meet man by
his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift
of the Spirit, his
gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his
call to a blessed life
to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but
from which, by a
terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is
not a single aspect of
the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the
question of evil.
310 But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil
could exist in it?
With infinite power God could always create something
better.174
But with infinitewisdom and goodness God freely willed to create
a world "in a state of journeying"
towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of
becoming involves the
appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others,
the existence of the
more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and
destructive forces of
nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as
long as creation has
not reached perfection.175
311 Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to
journey toward their
ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love.
They can therefore go
astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil,
incommensurably moreharmful than physical evil, entered the world.
God is in no way, directly or
indirectly, the cause of moral evil.176He permits it, however,
because he respects
the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to
derive good from it:
For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never
allow any
evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so
all-powerful and good
as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.177
312 In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence
can bring a good
from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by
his creatures: "It
was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here,
but God. . . You
meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it
about that many
people should be kept alive."178From the greatest moral evil
ever committed - the
rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of
all men - God, by his
grace that "abounded all the more",179brought the greatest of
goods: the
glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that,
evil never becomes a
good.
313 "We know that in everything God works for good for those who
lovehim."180The constant witness of the saints confirms this
truth:
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St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and
rebel against
what happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is
ordained for the
salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in
mind."181
St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his
daughter:
"Nothing can come but that that God wills. and I make me very
sure thatwhatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it
shall indeed be the
best."182
Dame Julian of Norwich: "Here I was taught by the grace of God
that I
should steadfastly keep me in the faith... and that at the same
time I should
take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed
in this time
- that 'all manner (of) thing shall be well.'"183
314 We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its
history. But the
ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end,
when our partial
knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face",184
will we fully know the waysby which - even through the dramas of
evil and sin - God has guided his creation to
that definitive sabbath rest185for which he created heaven and
earth.
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